This is a family friendly blog for those who love dolls and toys. The blog is a forum for all apsects of doll history, doll collecting, and doll making. It is the first step in creating a nonprofit doll center to educate the public about the historical role that dolls, the oldest human cultural artifact, play in the the lives of people all over the world. All excerpts are the author's intellectual property and may not be reproduced in any means withoutreceiving permission from the author.

My husband led me to a fantastic Victorian doll house yesterday. After we chatted with a great couple who built it, we came home with VanV...

Sand Baby Castaways

Courtesy, Glenda Rolle the Artist

PM Dolls

Leo Moss

German Dolls

Formerly, Aunt Len's.

Beecher Doll

Graces cover of Lenon Hoyte Auction, Aunt Len's

Foreign Dolls

Pryor Collection

Pryor Doll Collection

In Dec. 1959 Natl. Geographic

Great Book

Edward VI's Doll, 1540

Formerly, Helen Moe Doll Museum

Rare "frozen metal doll" Mannikin Pis

Courtesy, eBay Eilleen, Finder 27

Vintage Japanese Doll Joins our Museum Family

Courtesy, Southern Soldier Antiques

Rare Frozen Charlotte Type

A Pageant of Dolls

By Lesley Gordon, 1948

Hong Kong Lili

Barbie Stamp

An early Vintage Barbie

Bild Lili

Zinc Bodied Rohmer

Caused a suit between Mme. Rohmer and Mlle. Huret

Metal Dydee Baby

17th century Lead Dolls

England

Doll Shaped Mold

cf Dolls and Puppets by von Boehn

Metal Head

Probably Minerva

Black Metal Head

Russian Nesting Doll Charm

18 inch Metal Head

Mlle Bleuette

14th C Munich Clay Doll

Used as Bapitsmal Gifts

Halopeau artists rendering

Toy maker

Restored dolls

L to R: All vinyl mid-60s, Ragggedy Ann, handmade, new arms and clothes, Barbie Type as Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia. Black Felt Dress, white silk flowers and ribbons. She is in one piece, but with a swivel waist that does snap in two!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Doll!!I would like to let everyone know that I am writing fairly regularly for the R. John Wright Design Blog and for Ruby Lane. I also am doing some small descriptions for the dolls on Ruby Lane, and will soon be doing columns and more articles for our beloved ADC magazines. My articles for Doll Collecting at About.com, but my vertical was discontinued, so my content will appear on RJW's amazing site or on my blogs, Ruby Lane, and ADC. You can find me on Flickr,as etquest and Antique Doll Reader magazine, and this blog is being translated through Word and Google into Greek, Spanish, and Japanese. I should have one or two more doll books ready to go to the publisher, as well.

Also, look for me or Antique Doll Collector Magazine on Twitter, Reddit, Delicious, Instagram, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Snapchat [As soon as I can figure it out!!] I have also done a post or to for Michele at Tonner.

I want to thank with all my heart the folks at Antique Doll Collector Magazine, R. John Wright and R. John Wright Dolls, Rachel Hoffman and Turn of the Century Antiques, Ruby Lane, Michele at Tonner, Christie Donnelly my former general manager at About.com, and my wonderful doll friends, Mikki Brantley, Mr. R. Lane Herron, Stephanie Hammonds, Jo Smith, Caroline Johnson, Kirsten Anderson, and D. Nelson. Thanks also to all our interviewees, especially Sandy Bullock, and to my doll groups on Facebook, especially The Beauty of Dolls. Thanks to Merna Throne who helped me to set up these blogs, and to Robin for her inspiration.

Thanks to Bella May Dolls, Dollighted to meet You, United Doll Sellers, Theriault's, and Florence& George and to my wonderful Twitter family. I love the "likes" and retweets. Thanks to our good friends at Terror at Skellington Manor, to the National Museum of Play, to Morphy Auctions and Doll Castle News.

Thanks and God Bless to our wonderful followers on our blogs, over 200.000, and to the over 4 million folks who have viewed our work on Google+! Love to my LinkedIn Friends, to my Goodreads fellow writers and bibliophiles, to my Pinterest and Etsy family, to my Flickr fans, and to all who read my work. You humble me, and I love you

Dedicated to all I have loved, who have departed this life, and especially to my mother, Mrs. Clara A. Tsagaris, and to Mary Hillier and Violet Page. Love to my muses, Nan, Erzebet, Anne Rice, and J. Pagter Johl. Love to all good writers who struggle with their craft, and love to my husband, Dino Milani, who has helped me on this writers' journey, and to Dr. T and Margaret, to Rosemary, Pam, Laurie, Lori, Sarah, and to all my friends, to Ms. Yoko Ono, who reminds us each day on Twitter that life is beautiful! Also, to Nikki and Jordan, who read my blogs :) And to Penny Plum!!

If I've left anyone out, I apologize, but you live in my heart. Dolls are a huge part of our lives, and are among the most important of cultural artifacts! If the world could share dolls, and through them, our cultures, hopes, and dreams, we would all live in a more peaceful world!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Peace in 2017!! Let's make it the Year of the Doll!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Look for more soon on unusual German character babies, which are becoming a great love of mine, but here are two unusual examples that belong to my friend Mikki. We are putting out an APB, or ADB [All Dolls' Bulletin] out on them! All photos are courtesy of Mikki:

I'm pretty sure the boy and girl are from the same company.On the girl, Germany is underneath the B and numbers.The boy is very unique! I also had to make him arms, he had none when I bought him.I would love to know about them, even the museum had spent time trying to identify him, with no luck

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Below are excerpts from a
very kind, and flattering article my school had written about me. I am an
administrator and teacher in legal studies, criminal justice, and English when
I'm not "Playing Dolls." She writes very well, and once wrote
for Newsweek. I was terribly honored by this, and touched, so I
reproduced some of it for everyone to enjoy, and it is sort of an early
Christmas card from me. Seasons Greetings to all, and Peace in 2017!

With Love from Tin
Lizzie

Prof is Doll Collector,
Academic Renaissance Woman

When Dr. Ellen Tsagaris was a
toddler in her native Greece, her mother presented her with a rubber yellow
bunny doll that squeaked. “I liked it very much,” she recalled.

Two Greek dolls dressed in
national costumes followed that present. “By then, I was hooked. I remember as
a child saying, ‘I’m going to collect dolls.’”

And collect she did.

Today, some 50 years later,
Ellen . . . is not only the chair of multiple academic departments for
KU. . . , but also one of the nation’s foremost collectors of and authorities
on antique dolls.

“When I was young, I loved
portrait painting and I was interested in photography, costumes, and textiles,
too. I found that doll collecting encompassed all those interests. I’ve
always loved having dolls, collecting dolls and reading about dolls,” she said.

Wooden
dolls, porcelain dolls, dolls made of china and wax, Ellen has them all. And
this year, she authored the first definitive book on dolls made from tin.

Entitled
With Love from Tin Lizzie, A History of Metal Heads, Metal Dolls,
Mechanical Dolls, and Automatons,” the book addresses the way dolls reflect
cultures and civilizations, and how they have given rise to an international
“doll economy.”

Reviewers
have described the book as an “academic text, a photo album, and book of
memories all in one.”

Ellen’s
dolls hail from 50 U.S. states and most of the countries in Europe, Asia and
South America.

Her
Greek family, world travelers, have continued to bring Ellen antique dolls,
folk dolls, costume dolls and souvenir dolls from all parts of the globe.

One
of her favorites is her ‘Vogue Baby Dear,” the type of doll that Communist
Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev took back to his grandchildren in Russia
after his iconic “shoe-banging” speech to the United Nations in 1960.

She
received a Japanese Ningyo doll made of papier mache and covered in white
oyster shell when her Uncle Tom visited Japan. At Knott’s Berry Farm in
California, her father presented her with a strawberry blonde doll designed by
celebrated ballet dancer and artist Suzanne Gibson.

When she’s not collecting
dolls, Ellen is something of an academic renaissance woman. She holds a law
degree, a doctorate in Modern British Literature, a Master’s Degree in English,
and a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Spanish. She is a member of the Phi Beta
Kappa.

******

Her interest in dolls has
dovetailed seamlessly with her academic interests. she has researched and
written about dolls in literature and about Anne Rice, who was an avid doll
collector.

Ellen's next frontier:
When she retires, she hopes to establish a nonprofit doll museum similar to the
one Rice established at the former St.. Elizabeth's orphanage in New
Orleans. The museum will tell the story of human history though dolls,
doll houses, and related objects.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Authors, exhibits, Holocaust specialists and dramatic
presentations are provided to schools, libraries, churches and other community
venues through grants and collaboration with community groups.

INSTITUTES AND WORKSHOPS

Since 1993, Holocaust institutes and workshops have been
offered to Quad City educators, students and community members. Institutes are scheduled in the fall of
odd-numbered years.

TRUNKS AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL
MATERIALS

The Jeff Leibovitz Special Collection, housed at the Western
Illinois University Quad City Campus in Moline, provides access to over a
thousand resources, including sets of traveling curriculum cases focused on Making
a Difference, Rescuers and Resisters, and Diaries and Memoirs.

ESSAY AND ART CONTESTS

The Ida Kramer Children and the Holocaust Essay Contest and the
Meyer and Frances Shnurman Holocaust Visual Arts Contest are open to students
in grades 7-12. Submissions are due
annually on February 1.

TEACHER SCHOLARSHIPS

Applications
for the Rauch Foundation Teacher Scholarship, from $200 to $2,000, are due annually
on April 1 or October 1 to support professional development. The scholarship covers expenses for travel,
housing, and/or registration for conferences, workshops or tours.

A BOOK BY ME

Youth, 18 years old or younger, interview, research, write
and illustrate a 10-page book about a Holocaust survivor, liberator or rescuer.

Promoting a higher
awareness of the Holocaust as a unique historical event with universal
implications for today